Love & Other Drugs

Self-Care Tip # 224 – When you have something beautiful, stop and think about how you feel, and then shrink it into some words to remember for always.

The day is late and sand is in my ears and between my toes. I don’t have much left on the clock before I should shower and sleep.

Earlier, while walking to the car with my daughter, I remembered Anne Hathaway‘s performance in the movie, “Love and Other Drugs,” based on Jamie Reidy‘s 2005 memoir, “Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman.” Hathaway plays the role of “Maggie,” who despite her progressive demise secondary to Parkinson’s Disease, says to her love,

This is how happy I am, in this moment right now, the way the light’s hitting that face of yours, there’s this little breeze coming…, it doesn’t matter if I have 10,000 more moments like this or just this one because…. Right now this moment. I have this.

The sun had set and we were wet and barefoot trying to get back to the car before dusk faded out. I asked my daughter that if she could put all the feelings inside her she was feeling right then, that moment, into a tight little ball, “What are the words to describe it?”

This isn’t easy for a seven year-old to do developmentally and poor girl, I torture her with these questions. And for all her suffering, I couldn’t tell you what she said beyond, “happy.” But I do remember thinking, “This moment. This moment is enough.”

She was so beautiful, full up of goodness. She belonged in the moment. And me? I was a part of it by God’s magic. And now I have it. Some bit of heaven already.

Questions – What moment(s) comes to mind that you have to remind you of what makes life worth living? What do you have that is enough? Please tell me your story.